Nearly three weeks into “Pride month,” Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers remain the only team to not hold an event to commemorate June’s focus on LGBT issues.
Good for them.
As you can imagine, the team has been fielding all types of criticism. In a statement, the team responded:
“Our commitment is to make everyone feel welcome and included in Rangers baseball. That means in our ballpark, at every game, and in all we do – for both our fans and our employees. We deliver on that promise across our many programs to have a positive impact across our entire community.”
In other words, the team doesn’t feel it’s necessary to single out one special interest group or cause over another. Everyone is welcome – every game.
A former employee of the club, upset with the Arlington franchises’ refusal to be bullied into going along with the trend, gave a telling interview to The Athletic, confirming what many of us have long suspected.
“(The silence) is deafening,” the former Ranger employee lamented. “The fact of the matter is it’s a free marketing opportunity, it doesn’t cost them anything personally and they can boost revenue by looking inclusive.”
Looking inclusive.
You can be sure that many teams, if not the majority of them, have simply gone along to 1) avoid criticism and 2) appear open-minded.
Only “going along” with the pride propaganda can and does cost something – and often quite a bit.
Anheuser-Busch has lost over $27 billion in market value since trotting out Dylan Mulvaney. Target saw its piece of the pie shrink by nearly $14 billion after customer’s protested the company’s targeting of children in its LGBT-themed promotions.
Could it be that Rangers team owner Ray Davis isn’t anxious to alienate the team’s fan base?
You think?
To be sure, the Rangers have previously sponsored the “NAGAA Gay Softball World Series” last year. It’s not clear why they chose to support that event, though they may see it as less risky than devoting an entire date at their home park to the focus.
People of a certain era will remember the “Lone Ranger,” a fictional character who first debuted on radio in the 1930s. The storyline would prove so popular and beloved that it would evolve into a hit television series.
As the story was told, the masked law man who operated independently and rode a horse, was committed to serving his fellow man and his community. In doing so, he followed a strict moral code that included a pledge “That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number … That all things change but truth, and that truth alone, lives on forever. In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.”
Let’s hope the Texas Rangers hold strong and that the Lone Rangers’ creed may fall back into favor well beyond the confines of the Lone Star State.
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